AUS Women vs NZ Women, 10th Match, Group A at Sharjah, Women's T20 World Cup, Oct 08 2024 - Match Result

So that's it from us from this big Group A clash. Defending champs Australia triumph as expected, but inflict a HUGE defeat, which could have consequences for New Zealand down the road, if Net Run Rates come into the reckoning. We'll catch you tomorrow for the double header.

Alyssa Healy: "We could have been smarter with the bat at the end, but we came out really well with the ball and I'm really happy with that. The middle order has done a good job in the last while and the lower order hadn't had a lot of practice. Megan Schutt has been wonderful, but I thought the whole attack tonight was unbelievable, Annabel Sutherland got wickets as well."

NZ captain Sophie Devine: "We needed to have a good start and we let the run rate creep up too much. By the ten over mark it was up over 10-an-over. At the halfway mark we thought the wicket played better than we thought it would. But we got ourselves into a bit of a hole. When we were bowling we strayed a little too far from the stumps and that's where we had been good against India. In the field we were a little sloppy. With the bat we need to play some more courageous shots. We've still got two games to go. We don't want to get too carried away with run rate. Sri Lanka is our next big game."

Ashish: "This loss may haunt NZ in case RRR comes into picture." They now move to third on the table. But then Pakistan have not played Australia yet either. Nor has India. NZ will hope Australia can pull off big wins against those teams as well.

POTM is Schutt, who says:

"I feel like I've iost a few litres, but I feel pretty good. It really ebbed and flowed in the first innings, and I think we left a few out there. But I knew if we kept it tight in the powerplay we'd be able to peg them back in the middle. We had a strong emphasis on fitness, and it's really paid off given the heat. For a lot of the girls it's their first World Cup. We are taking it one game at a time."

That seals a whopping 60-run win for Australia, in what is a low-scoring tournament. With that, you suspect, Australia have half a foot in that semi final. Megan Schutt was thei biggest star with the ball, getting rid of Plimmer early, then dismissing Kerr, before also taking the final wicket. What was incredible is that she bowled 18 dot balls, and conceded only three runs. My pick for Player of the Match. (We'll see who the official one is.)

Fran Jonas in at No. 11